No wind so we motored the three miles south to Pali harbour, where Stavros, the local car rental owner was waiting to take our lines and of course to offer his car hire. And what a lovely harbour, moreso given that it’s free, apparently the chap that used to collect fees gave up last year. Even water and electricity were free.
Nisyros is famous for its volcano, so despite visiting it 14 years ago on a flotilla holiday, we had to go again. So we took Stavros up on his offer and hired a car for 3 days, visiting the volcano, the 2 mountainous villages, the main village of Mandraki and a couple of beaches. A 3 day rental was a slight mistake as you can easily see everything on the island in 1 or 2 days.
On the Thursday we were having a light lunch on the other side of the harbour watching a charter boat come in next to Jacana on the other side of the harbour. Despite virtually no cross wind and having a bow thruster, the ‘professional’ skipper made a complete cock up of reversing into the space, and with no fenders, took a lump out of our teak toe rail. He was very apologetic, so it’s an insurance job to repair Jacana.
Saturday we got wind of a festival in Mandraki, so in the evening cycled there to watch the Festival of Nikita, a fairly modern day martyr, who was killed for his religious beliefs in the 1700’s. The festival involved a service in the church at the eastern end of Mandraki where everyone was given a lump of bread, walked through the village, past Nikita’s house, to another church, and then to a square where everyone was given a meal, followed by Greek dancing.
However, just before getting on our bikes, our Italian neighbours very kindly gave us an apperatif of delicious Italian salami, and 24 months matured parmesan type cheese from near Milan, where they live. Truly delicious!
Overall a great stop on a really beautiful island, but we need to keep moving.
Nisyros is famous for its volcano, so despite visiting it 14 years ago on a flotilla holiday, we had to go again. So we took Stavros up on his offer and hired a car for 3 days, visiting the volcano, the 2 mountainous villages, the main village of Mandraki and a couple of beaches. A 3 day rental was a slight mistake as you can easily see everything on the island in 1 or 2 days.
On the Thursday we were having a light lunch on the other side of the harbour watching a charter boat come in next to Jacana on the other side of the harbour. Despite virtually no cross wind and having a bow thruster, the ‘professional’ skipper made a complete cock up of reversing into the space, and with no fenders, took a lump out of our teak toe rail. He was very apologetic, so it’s an insurance job to repair Jacana.
Saturday we got wind of a festival in Mandraki, so in the evening cycled there to watch the Festival of Nikita, a fairly modern day martyr, who was killed for his religious beliefs in the 1700’s. The festival involved a service in the church at the eastern end of Mandraki where everyone was given a lump of bread, walked through the village, past Nikita’s house, to another church, and then to a square where everyone was given a meal, followed by Greek dancing.
However, just before getting on our bikes, our Italian neighbours very kindly gave us an apperatif of delicious Italian salami, and 24 months matured parmesan type cheese from near Milan, where they live. Truly delicious!
Overall a great stop on a really beautiful island, but we need to keep moving.
Big photo dump ahead!
